Latheef wins Sardinian Veterans Table Tennis Opens

Former Maldivian national table tennis champion Ahmed Latheef has won gold in the above 70 age category of the Sardinian Veterans International Table Tennis Opens held in Sardinia, Italy.

Some 120 players from over 20 countries participated in the competition, of which 13 players entered the above 70 age category.

Latheef won the final match of the category against Italy's Romanoli with a perfect score of 3-0. Latheef won the first set with an easy 11-2, while the second set was a closer call at 14-12. The last set was also an intense one, ending in 22-20.

Latheef and his doubles partner from Germany also won silver in the doubles events in the same age category.

He said he is very happy with the outcome of the competition, at a time when he is involved with organizing a veterans tournament in AA. Thoddoo this august.

He also won the silver medal in table tennis at the Thailand Masters Games in January this year, becoming the first Maldivian player to win a masters medal in the sport.

Latheef also won the over 60 category of the Friendship Table Tennis Tournament held in Turkey last year, playing alongside Ali Adam Manik. He was a member of the table tennis team that competed in the 1973 3A Games in China, the first local sports team to go abroad as well.

Six years later, in 1979, he was part of the table tennis team that competed in the Indian Ocean Island Games.

Latheef, who won the national singles title in 1973, 1974 and 1981, last played at the top level at the 1990 Asian Games in China.

But, the elder member of the famous Seaweed family of table tennis has been maintaining his fitness and regularly playing in local and international veterans tournaments ever since. In fact, he also played for a club in the German league system while serving as Maldives' ambassador to Germany.

Apart from his success in table tennis, he is also a former cricketer, having played for Victory Sports Club in 1983 when the team won that year's national cricket championship.

Over the years, Latheef served as the president of Maldives' Table Tennis Association as well.